Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen's 1813 comedy of manners follows Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy through first impressions, pride and money in Regency England.

Author

Jane Austen

First published

1813

Setting

Regency England

Genre

Novel of manners

Read it if you like

Witty romance, slow-burn banter and sharp social comedy.

On screen and stage

BBC series (1995), film (2005)

Overview

Elizabeth Bennet is one of five unmarried sisters in a family with a modest income and an estate that cannot pass to daughters. When the wealthy Mr Bingley rents a nearby house and brings his friend Mr Darcy, local hopes turn to marriage. Elizabeth takes an instant dislike to Darcy's reserve; he, in turn, finds her family hard to accept. The novel follows how each of them misjudges the other, and what it takes to correct that.

Themes

• First impressions and prejudice
• Marriage, money and class
• Reputation and propriety
• Self-knowledge

Background

Austen wrote an early draft in the 1790s and published the finished novel anonymously in 1813, during the Regency. Women of her class had few ways to secure their future other than marriage, and an entailed estate could pass only to a male heir. That is the pressure behind the Bennet family's anxieties.

Why it endures

It joins a precise social comedy to a love story in which both people must change. Its opening sentence is among the best-known in English, and the book has been adapted for screen and stage many times.

Quotes